Pieces of Us
by loveislouder94
Summary: He's handsome and adorable and patient and sweet, but he's also shy and insecure and so frightened of pain that he won't allow himself love. / Ten Remus/Tonks drabbles, in response to the Alphabet Soup: Drabble Competition on HPFC.
1. A for Annoying

**Author's Note: This was written in response to the Alphabet Soup Drabble Competition on HPFC. I chose the pairing RL/NT, and the prompt for this one is A for Annoying. The next few will be posted in the coming days. These will all be between 100-200 words, as per the challenge. I hope you enjoy them!**

February 1996

When she's not sleeping, Tonks spends most of her time nowadays pondering the mystery that is Remus Lupin. Admittedly, sometimes her pondering extends to when she's sleeping, for he's occasionally in her dreams, and every time he's walking away from her. She doesn't have to be Freud to know where that comes from.

He's handsome and adorable and patient and sweet, but he's also shy and insecure and so frightened of pain that he won't allow himself love. He's had more than his fair share of pain already, she knows that, and to Tonks it makes him all the more deserving of love, not less.

She sighs audibly, not caring about the strange look Dawlish gives her. Remus is also far too stubborn for his own good, and sometimes her fruitless battle to make him see reason leaves her exhausted.

Tonks never thought that one person could be quite so annoying, but she hadn't counted on that same person being so close to perfect, either.


	2. D for Dinnertime

April 1998

"Darling Teddy, it's your dinnertime!" Tonks coos, gently lifting him from his crib. He stops crying the moment she picks him up, and Tonks feels enormously privileged to be the one who can make him happy.

"Look," she says, sitting down on the couch with him, "Here's your bottle, and there's daddy, see?"

"Dora, I don't think he cares who's around right now, he just wants his milk, don't you Teddy?" The baby gives him a small smile in response, and his hair flashes an electric blue. A few moments later he starts grizzling again and his hair reverts to a mousy brown.

"He's an open book, just like his mother." Remus smiles.

"Nothing wrong with that now, is there?" Gulping down his milk, Teddy just watches her contentedly, and that's all the answer she needs.


	3. J for Juggling

1995

Sometimes Tonks thinks juggling being an Auror and a member of the Order of the Phoenix and trying to take care of Sirius as best she can, whilst eating and sleeping and showering and surviving, is impossible. Sometimes, just existing is a tough enough job all on its own.

And then she walks into Grimmauld Place and Remus greets her with a tired, but genuinely happy smile, and everything else she's been worrying about disappears. Such mundane worries have no place with him, or if they do, he listens to them and his attentiveness alone diminishes them in her mind.

When they sit across from each other at that careworn table, sipping hot chocolate or butterbeer or whatever else strikes their fancy, there's no war or worries or any sort of juggling. There's just the two of them, and it's perfect.


	4. N for Never Mind

June 1995

Grief is fresh in both of their minds, and they sit opposite each other at the long kitchen table in Grimmauld Place, each finding solace in the presence of other. It's sad, but she thinks it's also kind of beautiful, the way that two people can walk through such darkness together, bringing a little light with them as they go.

Maybe it's the extremity of her emotions, maybe it's the Firewhiskey, or maybe she just can't hold it in anymore, but when she opens her mouth to share this with him, what comes out instead is a very teary "I love you."

Remus' eyes meet hers across the table, filled with desolation, surprise and…fear? She mentally kicks herself for thinking without speaking and making an idiot of herself, as usual.

"Never mind," she backtracks quickly, "Clearly I've had too much to drink." Her weak smile is not returned. Remus' face has closed, his normal friendliness replaced by a coldness she has never seen before, and it frightens her.


	5. Q for Quiet

**A/N: Thank you to Guest, sorry I couldn't PM you to thank you personally, but I appreciate your review.**

August 1997

"I hate it when you go all quiet like this. I know there's something wrong, but I can't help you if you won't tell me what it is. I just worry about you, that's all."

She's lying on their bed and speaking to his back. He's turned away from her, staring blankly out the window and he's hardly said a word since they got back from Bill and Fleur's wedding an hour ago.

"Dora, please don't worry, I'm fine." He sits down beside her on the bed and gives her a smile that doesn't reach his eyes.

"Don't tell me not to worry, it's not something I can help, you know."

"I know." This time his smile is genuine, and the note of love in his voice is unmistakable. "I love you, please remember that. No matter what."

She nods, and drifts off to sleep with one of her hands in his.

The next morning, she wakes up to an empty bed, and a heavy heart. He'll come back on his own eventually, but that doesn't make waiting for him any easier.


	6. R for Ravenous

1997

Remus returns to their house, and is greeted by the smell of smoke and burning toast. Drawing his wand apprehensively, he walks into the kitchen.

"Dora, what on Earth is going on?" She's slumped forlornly at the kitchen table, the offending piece of toast lying blackened on a plate before her.

"I tried to make you dinner. I know you're always ravenous after the full moon, but I sort of stuffed it up."

"I can see that," he says, trying unsuccessfully not to smile. "Thank you, Dora."

He hopes those three words convey everything he wants them to, because even though she burnt the toast, she was trying to do something for him, and random acts of kindness are not something Remus is used to. There's something infinitely meaningful about small acts of thoughtfulness. To Remus they are invaluable and irrefutable proof that he is here, and he, just like everyone else, has every right to be. Tonks has shown him that.


	7. S for Shut Up

**A/N: Barely made the word limit this time at 198 words. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, Favourited or Alerted this, I really appreciate it.**

August 1995

"Would you shut up for just a minute?! No - " she shouts when she sees he's about to interrupt, "I don't want to hear about how you're too poor or too old or too dangerous or too whatever, okay?"

Miraculously, he's silent, waiting for her to speak, but now that he's looking at her like that, so directly and so intensely, she can't gather her thoughts to form a coherent sentence. "I love you," she cries, and it comes out more frustrated than she intends.

"No you don't." He says, as though he's speaking to a child.

"Oh really? Are you inside my head now, then? I never picked you for a Legilimens."

"No! You're young, you'll find someone else, someone better."

She's so angry all that comes out of her mouth is an incomprehensible shout, and as much as she knows her immature behaviour must be affirming his reservations about their age difference, she's too furious to care.

"Tonks, this is going nowhere. I'll see you at the next Order meeting."

"Leave then, Lupin," she shouts at his retreating back, barely waiting until she hears her front door close before she bursts into tears.


	8. T for Tangent

1995

"Yeah, and so that's how I failed Charms in my second year. And why. How did we get onto this again?"

"I can't actually remember, I think we were talking about our respective Care of Magical Creatures experiences, and then segued into something else…"

"Oh, Merlin, I've gone and done it again, talked your ear off and rambled about nothing. Sorry, Remus." She buries her head in her arms, certain he's sick to death of her and too bloody polite to say so.

"Don't be Nymphadora, I love listening to you talk."

She lifts her head slightly and smiles. "Really?" Then she frowns. "I swear I'll curse you next time you call me that."

Their conversations always go like this, leading them from one tangent to another, and Remus thinks that's the way good conversation is supposed to go, when you can talk for hours and never run out of things to say.


	9. U for Undeniable

1995

"Come on Moony, admit it. You fancy my baby cousin Tonks. It's undeniable." Sirius leans back in his chair, dangerously close to falling.

Remus looks up from his book, and says, calmer than he feels, "Well, I'm denying it Sirius. Nymphadora is a lovely girl, and we're friends. Nothing more."

"Right. Okay, have it your way. But I'm telling you, she fancies you too, and you're mental if you let her slip through your fingers." In an uncharacteristic display of tact, Sirius leaves it at that, knowing Remus is rattled.

"I'm not mental Sirius, I'm a werewolf," he says quietly and with a note of finality that speaks of a lifetime of pain and prejudice, and conviction that will hurt him just as much as it does her.


	10. Y for Yellow

**A/N: Last one! An enormous thank you to anyone who has reviewed, Favourited (I know that's not actually a word, but it'll do for now) or Followed this collection. Those were choices you made, and you obviously thought my work was worthy of them, otherwise you wouldn't have read it, and I can't tell you how much that means to me. Also, thank you to Guest and Kuri333, who reviewed anonymously, and whom I couldn't PM to thank.**

1995

One day, Nymphadora walks into an Order meeting with curly blonde hair, a noticeable change from her trademark pink. As usual, he registers her presence automatically, and the meeting becomes a much more enjoyable prospect.

Yellow might be a bright colour, and she a bright person, but there's something about Nymphadora Tonks, Remus thinks, that is a little more tough than blonde suggests. Yellow might be bright, but bubblegum pink, or even her preferred violet, has a message. Those colours say that she is not afraid to stand out – that, in fact, she wants to stand out.

They say that she is not ashamed of being who and what she is. For someone like Remus, who has spent most of his life being ashamed of who he is, her hair colours are a statement, and a reflection of a person he's coming to admire more and more every day.


End file.
